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Sunday, 9 January 2011

Mucky muck!

Managed to clear above the living room, fair bit of shoveling.

The wheelbarrow is a 100L Limex (Bottom right corner)by the way, most excellent as its a comfortable weight to shift around when just full, and it fits through the hatch in the roof to tip, which is brilliant!!! (Only has a few cm to spare..) I need to do some yoga exercises to tip it though... wheelbarrow hits wood, duck down, through hatch, start to lift whilst going through hatch, then stand up and tip.

We've come up with a DIY approach to the "shute" to tip the soil down, It's an old wooden ladder, with at the top an old piece of MDF board, very thin. Then some old vinyl flooring which conveniently folds its edges up to "funnel" the rubbish down, and then finally a bit of carpet :)

I took some pictures but they didn't come out too well. I must have shifted around 2-3M3 in total by now, and the whole area above the living room is clear down to the bitumen paper.

Unfortunately it started to drizzle, and its above freezing, snow is melting, dust forms mud, EVERYWHERE.. Granny's dog has a habit to run towards to material being tipped for some reason... completely covered in dust the poor thing... muddy paws.. and then ran inside the house!

I've been summoned to remove the heap (it must be about 1/2 of the material I am removing) tomorrow, which is a Sunday! She's worried about the "mud" being everywhere... I tried explaining that there's no point as when I do the rest it will all be dirty once more.. C'est la vie.

Well that about sums it up for now.. continue tomorrow, hopefully with some good pictures.

After lots of arguing back and forth, I think I am now NOT removing the mud above granny's side of the house, as well as the straw/hay that's left over, as she thinks she'll get very cold...

I just did some looking up, and the mud used offers a K value of 1.5 which is a U value of 15 at 100mm... The same thickness of glasswool offers 1.1... And is breathable.. And they still wonder why I am doing it!

It's a bit of a battle trying to get someone aboard with your plans, to create a well insulated, low heating cost house which is comfortable to live in, and constantly being reminded that what is there is "fine" for them, and that 50mm of polystyrene on the outside wall and 100mm of glass wool in the ceiling will be "sufficient" for them. Whilst it can be so much better, for roughly the same amount of work, and very little added extra cost.